The ultimate chance this season to experience Denmark’s international choreographer

Life is returning to normal for the Royal Danish Ballet following the grand celebra-tion of the bicentenary of the birth of August Bournonville. Despite the season’s extravaganza of new exciting choreography, Bournonville is, nevertheless, a reper-toire highlight. Enjoy Bournonville’s ballets with all they have to offer of festivity, colour, zest and elegance.

High expectations
Expectations were high prior to the premiere of the new production of The Ker-messe in Bruges in the spring. Not only had American-born Lloyd Riggins been invited back to Copenhagen to retouch Bournonville a little, the staging also fea-tured two new dancers in the title roles. Carelis and Eleonore were performed by Kristoffer Sakurai & Susanne Grinder as well as Dawid Kupinski & Yao Wei. The young dancers and the production as such were well received. Critics applauded this new Bournonville rendition, and all four dancers were promoted at the theatre on the very first day of the festival. Kristoffer Sakurai was appointed solo dancer while the other three dancers were appointed soloists. At the revival on Saturday, two new dancers – soloists Nicolai Hansen and Amy Watson – will featured in the principal parts as the three brothers who set out to see the wide world.

Bournonville and the American kid
Lloyd Riggins, who was formerly a solo dancer at the Royal Danish Ballet, has performed many principal parts in Bournonville’s ballets. Following his assignment to German ballet four years ago, Lloyd Riggins now not only offers a familiar ap-proach to Bournonville; he also offers a fresh new perspective.

On the combined task of safeguarding as well as renewing the Bournonville heri-tage, Lloyd Riggins states:

“It is as important to understand the theatrical language Bournonville employed as to understand that of our contemporary world. What needed portraying on-stage in 1851 need not necessarily be shown today. This raises the questions as to what and how much we need to show. Do we have to portray Bruges of the 1660s in the theatrical language of 1851? No, we need something different! We need to reduce it to the essence – but what is essential and what is superfluous?"

The Kermesse in Bruges features in the same programme as La Ventana, which is famed for its mirror dance. Kloborg and Andersen have revisited the ballet in detail. And although it is one of Bournonville’s smallest ballets it has for more than 150 years retained its popularity and is still a shining star of the Bournonville reper-toire.

Dancers from the Royal Danish Ballet - this appears to be the Principals & Soloist of the Royal Danish Ballet, as opposed to the company itself - will be performing at the Båghallarna in Malmo, Sweden on October 22 ( 6pm).

The performances will include: 'Apollo', 'Flower Festival From Genzano' and excerpts from 'Napoli', 'La Sylphide' and 'Konservatoriet' (similar to what was performed in London).

The 9-CD box set of the Bournonville ballet music is now available in the US through Tower Records. Apparently it is available at the Lincoln Center store in NYC, and can also be ordered via the Tower Records Website. The cost is approximately $70 (together with the book, the cost in Europe is equivalent to about $85 - 90).

I'm curious to hear about the debuts as well, but RDB reviews are far and few between.

Generally, except for tours and special events, there's nothing published in english. And none of the big Danish newspapers appear to have reviewed anything other than the gala in August. (My experience is that only premieres or galas tend to get reviewed, though debuts sometimes merit coverage).

Have any of our Danish posters seen any performances at Det Kongelige Teater this year? We'd love to hear your thoughts!

The company will be touring within Denmark for part of the month, but for the rest I'm not entirely sure. There are usually several longer gaps in the performing schedule since the company is in season for about 10 months of the year - during those times there are rehearsals and sometimes the 'Principals & Soloists' group will use the break to do a bit of touring.

Principal dancer Thomas Lund has been nominated for the "Best Male Dancer" award in the 2005 (UK) National Dance Awards. The winners will be announced at the awards ceremony, held on January 19, 2005 at Covent Garden.

For more information on the awards and details on nominees, click here.

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